cherry blossom 10 mile run

Getting into the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in DC isn’t easy – you have to put your name into a lottery because there are so many people that want to do the run and then names are randomly selected. I tried to get in last year, but wasn’t picked so I was very excited when I got the email a few months ago that I would be running this year. The cherry blossoms were supposed to be in peak bloom for the run – something that I don’t think has happened the last few years, and the weather was supposed to be chilly but sunny. So why did I drop down to the 5k?